Clarice Feldman on the AIPAC prosecutions

Earlier this week, we highlighted a Washington Post editorial calling on the Justice Department to drop the prosecutions of two members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

In today's edition of Pajamas Media, American Thinker contributor Clarice Feldman does a superior job of going through the issues of this "misbegotten prosecution" and explaining some of the court rulings that have almost all gone the way of the defendants:

Explaining all the ins and outs of this convoluted case seemed more effort than it was worth. That’s because the case is silly, and it was my expectation that after working so hard at the task the government would finally do what it should have long ago — dismissed the damned thing. Unfortunately, that may not happen. I am informed that the defense counsel presently does not believe that the case will be dropped, because he sees no sign of it. There are few people in place at Justice even to look at it, and they have other, higher priorities. He believes there will be a trial, and that it really will begin on May 27.Why has this nonsensical case — so harmful to U.S.-Israel relations — continued? Because like the sorcerer’s apprentice, once that first bucket of water is drawn by the first apprentice, it takes real courage for someone to exercise adult supervision and pull the plug on a losing case. So in the long tradition of Washington bureaucrats, the apprentices are allowed to keep doing what they are doing until they lose — even at the expense of wasting ever more resources and creating hard to live with new precedents for the government which employs them.

(Ignoring the sorcerer’s apprentice rule has consequences for the adult involved. See slanders like these against Philip Heymann — former assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division — that made their way via such apprentices to the press when he wisely dropped a meritless case against then Department of Defense employee Stephen Bryen.)

So in light of that information and the animus against the “Israel lobby” stirred up anew by the withdrawal under fire of Chas Freeman, I will try to explain why this case should not have been brought and why the Department of Justice is stupid to continue it.

Read the whole thing for some excellent background and analysis.

Earlier this week, we highlighted a Washington Post editorial calling on the Justice Department to drop the prosecutions of two members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

In today's edition of Pajamas Media, American Thinker contributor Clarice Feldman does a superior job of going through the issues of this "misbegotten prosecution" and explaining some of the court rulings that have almost all gone the way of the defendants:

Explaining all the ins and outs of this convoluted case seemed more effort than it was worth. That’s because the case is silly, and it was my expectation that after working so hard at the task the government would finally do what it should have long ago — dismissed the damned thing. Unfortunately, that may not happen. I am informed that the defense counsel presently does not believe that the case will be dropped, because he sees no sign of it. There are few people in place at Justice even to look at it, and they have other, higher priorities. He believes there will be a trial, and that it really will begin on May 27.

Why has this nonsensical case — so harmful to U.S.-Israel relations — continued? Because like the sorcerer’s apprentice, once that first bucket of water is drawn by the first apprentice, it takes real courage for someone to exercise adult supervision and pull the plug on a losing case. So in the long tradition of Washington bureaucrats, the apprentices are allowed to keep doing what they are doing until they lose — even at the expense of wasting ever more resources and creating hard to live with new precedents for the government which employs them.

(Ignoring the sorcerer’s apprentice rule has consequences for the adult involved. See slanders like these against Philip Heymann — former assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division — that made their way via such apprentices to the press when he wisely dropped a meritless case against then Department of Defense employee Stephen Bryen.)

So in light of that information and the animus against the “Israel lobby” stirred up anew by the withdrawal under fire of Chas Freeman, I will try to explain why this case should not have been brought and why the Department of Justice is stupid to continue it.